This study investigated the interaction between perceived social support and childhood maltreatment (CM) on limbic activity during negative emotion processing in 130 healthy adults. CM was associated with increased amygdala-hippocampus-complex (AHC) activity, while perceived social support showed a trend towards decreased AHC activity. A significant interaction effect revealed that perceived social support negatively correlated with AHC activity only in individuals without CM, suggesting a protective effect of social support absent in those with CM. This suggests that CM may disrupt the buffering effect of social support on limbic functioning, highlighting the need for interventions targeting social perception in individuals with CM.

Tiana Borgers, Anne Rinck, Verena Enneking, Melissa Klug, Alexandra Winter, Marius Gruber, Anna Kraus, Katharina Dohm, Elisabeth J. Leehr, Dominik Grotegerd, Katharina Förster, Janik Goltermann, Jochen Bauer, Udo Dannlowski, Ronny Redlich